


Essenceswap Extras

by Sorrel_Oake



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: (of a sort), Body Horror, Determination (Undertale), Essenceswap AU, Eye Trauma, Gore, Happy Ending, Hospitalization, Hospitals, Night Terrors, Not Underswap, Prequel, Sickfic, Swapped Characters Retain Personality, Undyne has bipolar disorder, bonus chapters, extras, swap au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-02-15 18:51:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18675439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sorrel_Oake/pseuds/Sorrel_Oake
Summary: A place to collect extra works that fit into the Essenceswap AU, but not the story of Essenceswap as it's being posted here (https://archiveofourown.org/works/17535503). Extra/cut chapters, other POVs, prequel chapters, and anything else I think of!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A trip to Knight Knight's All Nite Diner and Bar with Sans, and an emotionally charged moment with Papyrus! A cut scene occurring during chapter 28 of Essenceswap, while Frisk was hanging out with Sans...

“oh, and if someone asks your name, say zapf. zapf dingbats.”

“What kind of a name is  _ zapf dingbats _ ???”

“a very good name for a mute skeleton,” Sans said firmly, with the barest hint of offense, and that was the end of that.

Knight Knight’s All Nite Diner and Bar was situated in the center of Snowdin Town, and as the bells on the door jingled brightly when they entered, they drew the attention of the other patrons--a motley crowd of monstrous snow hares, wolves, bears, penguins, ice elementals, and still stranger beings.

“Hey, it’s Sans!!”

“Who’s your friend, Sans?”

“Where’s Papyrus at?”

“How’s it goin’, man?”

“Sans, it’s been ages since we’ve seen you in here!”

“Howdy!”

“Hiya!”

Sans raised a hand and inclined his head in greeting to all of them and pulled Frisk to an isolated booth in the corner with the other.

A huge black bird monster walked over to the booth and handed them each a menu. “Nice to meet you, pumpkin,” she drawled at Frisk. “What’s your name?”

Frisk held up one hand and fingerspelled “Z-a-p-f.”

“That’s a nice name! I ain’t seen you around Snowdin before. You’re another skeleton?”

“yeah,” Sans said. “they’re my little cousin. zapf dingbats.”

Frisk waved shyly.

“Oh my, well ain’t you a treasure! I’ll be right back to take your orders, sweetheart, alrighty?”

Frisk nodded and gave a quiet thumbs-up, and she walked off towards some more tables.

“you aren’t intimidated, are ya?”

They shook their head.

“okay, good. i don’t want to get you upset, this is supposed to be a nice day. that means if you aren’t having fun, just tell me, alright?”

They nodded, opening up the menu and scanning through it.

“I’m going to get… hm, grilled cheese, and fries, and tomato soup. And chocolate milk.”

“that’s a good choice, bud!”

“Thanks, Sans!” Frisk signed, flipping over their placemat to color on the back with the crayons in a jar on the table. “I wanna draw you something! My rabbi says I should practice more with my art!”

<<There’s no green?>> They would need the green crayon for their eyes, and the laces on their sneakers, even if they drew themself in Papyrus’ hoodie.

<<Huh, that’s weird. We can still draw Sans and Papyrus though!>>

<<Yeah!>>

They drew a big grey circle for Sans’ head, and two for his eyes, and a curve for his skull-plate, and a big sausage shape for his smile. They had just started scribbling a purple polo shirt when Knight Knight returned.

“What can I get for you, pumpkin?” she asked.

Frisk signed out their order carefully, and Knight Knight took it down.

“And for you, Sans?”

“the nite burg, french fries, and a bottle of ketchup, please.”

“Alrighty! I’ll have your drinks over in just a few!”

Frisk went back to their coloring, drawing Sans’ khaki pants, outlining his hands and arms and legs in grey, and then drawing his shiny black loafers with the black, which had been worn down a bit coloring in Sans’ eyes but still worked. Then they drew a circle and a square for Papyrus’ head, and an orange circle around it that turned into a scribbled hoodie. After they’d finished the hoodie, they went back and added his facial features, and then his hands. Then they scribbled on a semicircle of booty shorts, and long grey leg bones. Finally, they added his greyed and tattered orange sneakers, and pushed it over towards Sans.

“I drew you!!”

Sans grinned big. “i love it, kiddo! but where are you?”

“I’d need a green to put myself in! See, cause my eyes are green!” They pushed their face close to him and widened their eyes as far as possible.

“yep. heh heh, yep, they sure are. well, how about using, uh… this!” Like a wizard, Sans produced a worn-down, well-used green crayon of a brand they’d never seen before.

“Thanks, Sans!!!” Frisk signed, big and wide and happy, and grabbed the crayon, immediately setting to drawing.

<<Where do you think he got the crayon?>> Frisk wondered, coloring.

<<Dunno! Hee-hee, you draw your eyes in such a cool way!>>

<<My friend taught me how, it’s manga style!>>

<<What’s a man-ga?>> Heady asked. 

Frisk frowned. <<Some sort of Japanese comic book. My friend really liked them, but their stupid birth parents always threw theirs in the dump when they lived at their home.>>

<<Huh! Maybe we’ll find them when we’re travelling through that way!>>

<<What do you mean?>>

<<Lots of stuff washes down to us from the Ebott dump and lands in Waterfall! I’ll show you when we get there!>> Heady explained.

<<Oh!>> Frisk looked up as Knight Knight walked up and set down their grilled cheese, fries and soup, and a tall glass of chocolate milk. They set down their brown crayon, which they were using to draw their hiking boots and their shock of curly brown hair, and took a big sip of chocolate milk.

They ate silently and companionably with Sans for several minutes, occasionally taking a break to put a little extra detail into their drawing or to wipe their chocolate milk mustache. Thankfully, Papyrus had left their lips free of makeup, so they could eat without stressing about smudging it. 

“wow, kiddo,” Sans said quietly, “you eat like you’ve never seen food before!”

Frisk fingerspelled their answer as their other hand was busy holding the remaining quarter of grilled cheese. “Just hungry.”

“don’t forget to breathe, though, bud!”

Frisk took an exaggeratedly deep breath and another bite of grilled cheese.

Sans rolled his eye lights at them. “is this what having a baby sibling is like?” he asked no one in particular.

Frisk shrugged, but inside they were overjoyed to be considered like a sibling to the odd skeleton.

Sans saved half the burger and a few handfuls of fries for later, then tipped up the ketchup bottle and drank the rest of the ketchup by itself.

“Sans?”

“yeah?”

“Why did you just drink the ketchup?”

Sans grinned. “tasty.”

“Fair enough!”

After a few minutes, Sans settled the check and they left, Frisk bringing along the colored-in placemat, which they presented happily to Papyrus and Sans when they reconvened in the living room.

“THIS IS AMAZING!!”

“innit?”

“I’M PUTTING IT ON THE FRIDGE!!”

“Oh my G-d, thank you thank you thankyouthankyou--”

“OF COURSE, HUMAN!!! I WOULD ALWAYS SUPPORT YOUR ART, BUT IT IS EXTRA NICE THAT YOU’VE DRAWN US!!”

Their cheeks burned, and they awkwardly tried both to flap their hands in joy and hide their face. “You’re very nice.”

“R-REALLY? YOU THINK SO? WOWIE!!”

“Yeah!!” Leaning forward, they gave him a hug.

<<Oh no, your makeu-->>

It was too late--they’d smushed their painted face into his hoodie. <<Oh no, he’s going to be mad!>>

When they pulled back, though, he regarded their smudged face kindly. “HUMAN… HOW DO I SAY THIS. ER… YOUR MAKEUP IS MESSED UP! COME WITH ME TO THE BATHROOM, WE CAN WASH IT OFF!”

“Huh?”

“WELL, IT MUST BE VERY UNCOMFORTABLE! COME ON!”

They followed him through a door at the back of his room into the bathroom. It was little, but warmly lit, with a large mirror and a sink clustered with various products. The shower curtain had a cheery pattern of native flowers and trees, and like the school in the RUINS, there was no toilet.

Papyrus took a small towel and some makeup remover off a rack by the side of the sink and quickly set to cleaning their face. He chattered as he worked, telling them about a friend of his who was a stage actor and how he’d been out on tour for a few weeks now and how he hoped to have some kind of robotics project finished when he got back, but the drivers in the legs were on the fritz. Soon, their face was clean and dry, and Papyrus tossed the messy towel into the sink.

“ALL BETTER!!”

“Thank you, um… Papyrus?”

“YES, HUMAN?”

“Your sweater, uh, got messed up too--please don’t be mad, please don’t be mad, I just--” They shrank back, signs 

“OH! THANK YOU FOR TELLING ME!” Papyrus said, and stripped off his hoodie, revealing another, slightly smaller hoodie, which said “ How many theoretical physicists specializing in general relativity does it take to change a light bulb? Two: One to hold the bulb and one to rotate the universe.”

Frisk giggled a little at the joke, but still shrunk away from him as he looked at the hoodie he’d taken off.

“HUMAN? WHAT’S WRONG?”

“Aren’t you angry?”

“WHAT? WHY WOULD I BE?”

Frisk stared at him, mouth agape. “I got makeup all over your hoodie!”

“YEAH. BUT WHY WOULD I BE MAD AT YOU ABOUT IT? THESE THINGS HAPPEN, HUMAN. IT’LL WASH OUT.”

“But--”

“SHH. I’M NOT ANGRY WITH YOU, AND YOU’RE PERFECTLY ALRIGHT. SO WHAT IF I GOT A LITTLE MAKEUP ON MY HOODIE? IT WAS MORE IMPORTANT TO GIVE YOU THAT HUG.”


	2. Undyne's Eye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened to Undyne's eye in essenceswap. CONTENT WARNING for gore and hospitalization for acute injury.

Alphys’ heart plummeted and she gaped at the rabbit monster who had reported to her. She desperately tried to control her stutter. “An explosion in Hotlands?”

“Yes ma’am. The royal labs, ma’am.”

“Tell Temmie the investigation has to be postponed until my return. Nobody touches the suspect in my absence, understand?”

“Yes ma’am. Do you--”

Before Innistra could finish the question, Alphys was already running. She waved a claw at the astounded Lieutenant in dismissal.

The Duke of the River seemed to sense her desperation--they arrived at Hotlands in almost instants, without any of his usual overblown banter. The heating in Alphys’ armor shut down with a whir as she raced towards the labs, wrenching open the stuck doors and racing in. The interior of the lab was bright and empty--Undyne’s things were shoved haphazardly aside in the loft as usual, the computer was running, and the camera monitor was on and showing a screensaver, but no sign of an explosion was present--or of Undyne.

Desperate, she called her contact in the emergency medical service.

“Hello?”

“Was there a call to the Royal Labs today?” Alphys asked without bothering to reply.

“Er…” Alphys growled under her breath as the police liaison tapped on some computer keys. “Yes! Yes, two patients from the Royal Labs to the Prince Asriel Memorial Hospital, at--”

“Thanks.” Alphys hung up the phone, already running, knowing the liaison would be shaking her head and adding to Alphys’ reputation as brutal and heartless. It didn’t matter, right now. All that mattered was getting to Undyne.

Outside the hospital, Alphys took the opportunity to disappear her helmet and armor, leaving only her visor and civilian clothes. Taking a deep breath, she entered the squat, grey, building.

“Captain Alphys, what a surprise! What are you here for today?” inquired the receptionist.

“Was Doctor Undyne caught in the explosion at the Royal Labs?”

“Oh, dear. Yes…”

“I need to see her.”

“Er. She’s not… in good condition, Captain--”

“I’m not scared,” she lied.

The receptionist sighed. Although Alphys had no intention of punishing her if she had barred her access to the Royal Scientist, she had no way of knowing this, so she cut her losses. “Alright. Follow me.”

Alphys chewed on a claw as they walked to the ward Undyne was being kept on. Monsters with serious wounds were being wheeled in and out, and her visor picked up on their SOUL health as they went by--all were critical, and she worried more and more for Undyne as she walked.

“She’s… she’s in here. Um, you may want to prepare yourself for--”

“J-just let me in.”

A nurse opened the door, and Alphys gasped aloud.

Undyne was lying in a hospital bed, pale and unmoving, an oxygen mask on her face and an IV in one arm. Alphys’ visor automatically registered the condition of her SOUL--her brightness was average, but her HP was steady at _negative two_. She should be dust already, but a monitor tracked her heartbeat, which was faint and unsteady but definitely still going.

She ran to Undyne’s side and threw her arms around her as carefully as possible. She buried her head in her chest desperately. “Oh my god, oh my god--what’s wrong with her?!”

“We, um. We don’t know. Her lab assistant took just as much of the explosion, and he was up and walking around again with a little green magic, but we can’t get her stabilized. We got her body stable, but her SOUL and HP wouldn’t respond to any magic, and her ear fin and the left side of her face have been slowly melting. It’s nothing like we’ve ever seen before.”

“I-is she-- is she going to die?!” Alphys demanded.

“We don’t know,” a tall, cervine, nurse said. “Like I said, we’ve _never_ had a case like this before. We’re going in practically blind.”

Alphys sobbed quietly and held Undyne as tightly as she could. “Please, j-j-just wake up,” she choked out in a whisper. “Please, you c-c-can’t, I can’t l-lose you! You have to w-wake up!”

At the edge of her awareness, she heard the nurse telling the receptionist to give her privacy, and the click of a door. Her voice shook as she grabbed Undyne’s free hand, the one without an IV.

“You can’t l-leave me yet, you have to-- you have to wake up, U-undyne, you can’t die now! I need you!” Her voice cracked as she whispered urgently. “Stars damnit! I love you, you can’t d-d-die on me! You h-have to stay d-d-determined! S-stay with me!”

She pulled back and shifted her visor, rubbing fiercely at her eyes with one hand while the other remained clutching Undyne’s. She felt a twitch, suddenly, and immediately dropped her hand from her eyes, squinting through her tears at Undyne and surveying her for any sign of life. She murmured desperate wishes under her breath, praying that it hadn’t been a trick of her mind and that Undyne was going to survive.

She was about to give up and assume she’d imagined it, when it happened again--a tiny, weak, squeeze of her hand.

She squeezed back as gently as she could. “Undyne! You’re going to live, you’re not gonna-- you--you’re, oh my god, oh my god--” She hugged Undyne desperately, tears staining her hospital gown.

Slowly, carefully, Undyne signed Alphys’ name into her hand, not yet able to speak.

Alphys felt almost like laughing. She looked up into Undyne’s face, and sure enough her right eye was open just barely, watching Alphys. Her left eye, though, remained closed, and Alphys noticed that it was not so much that it was closed as that the skin seemed to have melted over it and was dripping slowly over the side of her face.

“Y-you need a doctor, I’ll--”

At that moment, the door swung open. “Captain--Holy angels! Doctor, you’re awake!” exclaimed a tall, lupine, monster.

Undyne slowly raised her free hand and signed, “yes.”

The doctor looked incredulously at a readout of Undyne’s vital signs. “Her HP… Captain Alphys, did you do anything to her?”

“N-no, no, I--”

“We’re not angry, Captain. We’d be delighted if you had any idea what was going on.”

“R-r-really, I was just, um, h-holding her hand, a-and, t-talking to her, a-and, and, she squeezed back! And I looked, and she was awake, and--” She slowed down just long enough for her visor to get an accurate read on Undyne’s SOUL, and see that her HP was restored--not to full, but to eighteen HP, a promising start. “I d-d-don’t know what I d-did!”

Undyne tapped gently on the bedframe to attract their attention, then slowly signed to them. “I need… to study… the effects… my notes…”

The doctor stared at her. “With all due respect, Doctor Undyne, you were medically dead about forty-five seconds ago. You will not be studying anything until you have a clean bill of health.”

“You can’t… cure… without the notes… it could be contaminated…” Undyne winced, bringing up a hand to try to rub at her eye. Alphys rushed to her side and grabbed her hand before she could.

“Undyne, d-d-don’t poke at that, o-okay?”

“feels… wrong…”

The doctor walked over to Undyne’s side and began to investigate her dripping flesh. “I’ve never seen symptoms like this before…” She reached for a tool and a small sample jar. “Doctor, may I take a sample?”

Undyne signed a “yes”, and lay with her eye closed and a strained look on her face while the doctor scraped free a sample of dripping skin and closed it tightly in the jar.

Her signs came out slightly faster as she reopened her undamaged eye and fixed the doctor with a sharp gaze. “Don’t… touch that… when you… study… it…”

“Certainly.” The doctor headed for the door. “Do try to rest, Doctor. You do not have to treat yourself. The best you can do to aid your treatment is sleep, for now.”

Undyne agreed, but as soon as the nurse and doctor had left, she grabbed Alphys’ wrist hard and spoke, with some effort. “My eye… contaminated, I’m sure… They won’t understand… the properties, I need my equipment…”

“Okay.” Alphys didn’t even hesitate. If Undyne knew what she needed she knew what she needed--no questions about it. “Can I bring it to you, or do you need me to try to get you discharged?”

Undyne laughed bitterly. “No… too big, it’s in my basement… can Sans teleport yet or…”

Alphys shook her head. “I don’t want you teleporting yet. Let me see if I can pull some legal strings.”

“I’ll need… the hospital… after we get back, but… we have to go as soon as possible…”

Alphys thought about this for a second. “It’ll be s-safest to use your magic to teleport. I can use the shadow-travel module to bring you, but we’ll h-have to recharge it when we’re there.”

Undyne nodded.

Alphys focused and pulled the piece of armor that had the module out of her aura. She shut off the lights, and in the glow of the spear-shaped mark on the back of the vambrace, keyed in the coordinates Undyne told her. Twining her fingers with Undyne’s, they disappeared, fading into the darkness and back out in a tiny, green-tiled room that stank of something Alphys couldn’t place. Undyne staggered to her feet with effort. “Stay here…”

“U-u-undyne--”

“Stay _here!_ ” Undyne drew a shaky breath and coughed. “This room is shielded… the lab isn’t safe… you can’t go out there…”

“A-are _you_ g-g-going to be alright?”

She grinned, a sharklike smile that didn’t quite reach her remaining eye. “I’ve got no choice, Alph.” The door swung open and closed, and Undyne was gone, leaving behind nothing but a few spattered droplets of flesh on the ground.

Alphys drew up her messages on her visor. The guard had been messaging her, so she reappeared her keyboard and gave them all curt replies and then sat to recharge the device Undyne had given her. The theory was simple: one of Undyne’s spells, the one that let her teleport from shadow to shadow, was woven into the vambrace of her armor and powered by magical electricity instead of Undyne’s own magic. That way, Alphys could shadow travel in an emergency. The only issue was in getting the spell not to deplete the whole charge of the magic battery at once, and this was not yet solved. Alphys set her claws in the plug socket on the module now, and a surge of her own magic in the form of crackling golden electricity ran into the device. The blue spear design lit up as the battery filled, and within a few minutes Alphys was able to remove her claws, exhausted, and run a quick system check. As soon as everything had turned up clean, she lay down on the floor, utterly drained. Surely a nap would be alright? Undyne always had everything under control, and even if she didn’t, there was nothing Alphys could do to help by getting herself killed.

She shut her eyes and drifted off almost immediately.

She woke, suddenly, to Undyne’s hands on her shoulders, shaking her and calling her name in a voice that sounded just wrong. Deep and garbled, it sounded like she was trying to speak through a layer of foam, or jelly--or the melted flesh she’d seen on the floor. Her eyes snapped open to a horror. Undyne was standing over her, the flesh running off her face in rivulets with only bare bone showing beneath. Her remaining right eye stared madly through her. Her hands, gripping Alphys like a vise, were sticky and warm, more like fused-together fins than true hands. Her breath rattled as a chunk of melting flesh dropped out of her throat and onto the floor by Alphys’ head. “Hhhellp… mme…”

She tried to squirm away, but it felt like something was sitting on her chest, holding her down. She couldn’t scream, couldn’t talk, couldn’t even reach out to Undyne to _try_ to help.

“Hhelpp… alphhyss, hhhhelp, plllease…” Her right eye suddenly burst and streamed down her face in a cascade of sticky yellow goop. Behind it Alphys could see muscle and nerve beginning to become mushy and run as well.

Tears of pity and terror welled up in Alphys’ eyes as she felt Undyne’s grip slackening as her hands began to drip slowly down Alphys’ sweatshirt, the caustic flesh burning holes into folds where it pooled. As it began to sting at her scales, Alphys tried still harder to get away, but her whole body seemed unresponsive. She heard someone yelling her name from far away and wondered what they would think of Undyne, whether they would attack, killing what was left of her best friend, maybe even killing her in the carnage, mistaking the trails of blue and red melted flesh on her for a sign that she had been infected with whatever was destroying Undyne. The voice seemed to get closer, and then--

“Alphys, Alphys!! Wake up, you’re having a nightmare! _ALPHYS!_ ”

A flinch ripped through her body as strong, whole, arms surrounded her. She blinked away the sight of the melting horror and saw Undyne, scarlet hair falling over the left side of her face, dressed in a thin hospital gown but _alive_ and _well_. Alphys breathed hard, staring at her. “U-u-undyne, you--”

Undyne shivered. “Are you alright, Alph? You were really solidly out, you had me worried about you!”

Alphys winced. The last thing Undyne needed in her condition was to worry about her. “S-s-sorry, I--”

“No, don’t be sorry! I’m alright, I feel better than ever. _I’m_ worrying about _you_ now.”

She hid her face in Undyne’s chest. “It’s j-just a n-nightmare.”

“A hell of a nightmare,” Undyne said. “You were staring right at me but you didn’t even see me! You had, what’s it called, a night terror? Sleep paralysis?”

“I-it’s o-over now, U-undyne, you d-d-don’t have to w-worry about it. I t-think it was j-just because I was w-worried that you couldn’t stop yourself melting i-in time, b-but--”

Undyne chuckled softly. “Don’t worry about it, Alph! That shit couldn’t hold me down. D’you want to see the wicked scar I got when I b--when I treated the infection?” She pushed back her hair and displayed a ring of scorched scales, all around where her eye used to be, with nothing in the middle but fresh scales covering the area smoothly.

“Your eye is just g-gone?” Alphys demanded, thinking about the way that Undyne’s eye had melted in her nightmare.

“Yeah, the cells just all burst. Nothing there to even heal,” Undyne said nonchalantly. “I’ll be fine. I can still see out of the other one, fuhuhu!!”

Alphys brushed her claws over it gently, terrified that it might collapse into slime at the slightest moment. “It d-doesn’t hurt?”

“Nah, I could do _anything_ right now. I could punch the freaking barrier!”

“U-undyne, you don’t have to l-l-lie to me. I know g-getting hurt saps your energy. R-remember?”

Alphys saw a brief flicker in Undyne’s good eye as she referenced the event that put the final end to her schooling, the months of psychosomatic complications after a broken leg that had finally convinced her to drop out. She shook her head. “Alph, I’m serious. I’d never lie to you. _I’m not in pain_.”

“D-did you take p-painkillers? A-are you--”

“Nah. I woke up feeling like I could kill an angel. I could go out to the course with you and shoot trick shots all day.”

“W-we have to go b-back to the hospital, r-remember?”

“Aw, fuck the hospital. I’m _fine_ , Alph, how often do I have to say it?”

She frowned at her. “Undyne, y-you’re not ‘f-fine’. You’re m-manic. Y-you need to go to the h-hospital and a-actually heal.”

“Why do you think I’m manic?” Undyne demanded. “I’m just healthy! I cured the contamination and I’m full of energy and--”

“--Manic. E-exactly.”

Undyne stared at her. “But--”

“Hospital.” Alphys was suddenly every inch the Captain of the Guard, tone brooking no argument. Her magic reacted to her growing anxiety, and her armor flashed into existence around her. “Now.”

“Alph, I don’t want to--” Her eye met Alphys’ and slid away. “I don’t--”

Alphys took her hand. “I know, t-trust me. But I n-need you to get real c-care for your injury.” The two of them disappeared and reappeared in the hospital, with two doctors and three nurses staring at them as they reappeared in the room they’d left the last night.

“How did you--?!”

Undyne took the lead, stepping away from Alphys quickly. “It’s my fault, sorry. I snuck away last night to treat myself and she got me and made me come back. But I’m fine, look--” She swept her hair back to show them the scorch mark on her face.

“Doctor Undyne, what happened to your eye?!?”

“Rapid cellular degeneration. Nothing left to heal, so I just did a preliminary spell to grow the skin over it so there wouldn’t be any mess. I’ll probably need L 1, 2, 3, and 5 pins in my fin, but the worst of it I think is gonna be my left cervical gills.” She raised her chin and gestured to the gills in question, which even Alphys could see had been disformed.

“But how did you treat the infection? We couldn’t stop the cellular degeneration in your sample, even with experimental tools--”

“It’s a specific molecular fission reaction with the material interaction proteins on the hydrophilic structures in the chemical I was studying. Over a certain thermic threshold the molecules of DT experience a scission reaction and can be flushed from the system without further loss of dust.”

“Do you have the, er, did you call it DT?”

Undyne shook her head. “DT is classified as a first-class restricted substance. I can’t just bring it into a civilian medical facility.”

“Ah.”

Alphys stood awkwardly in the corner, not understanding the conversation at all. A nurse approached her.

“Thanks for bringing her back,” she said in a tremulous voice.

Alphys nodded, trying not to let her brutal mask slip again. She watched Undyne’s colorful debate with the doctors warily--she could see, though they seemed not to, the way that tiredness tugged at her limbs and how she subconsciously babied her left side.

“She’s likely to need surgery, you know.”

She nodded again. “Can I stay for it?” she asked, trying not to sound too eager.

“Of course, Captain.”

Alphys froze. Had the nurse suspected her crush on Undyne? Anything she said to deny that would come off as tsundere, and yet, how could she let the nurse spread that knowledge, destroy her reputation, threaten Undyne--

“I’m really impressed by how much care you take to make sure everyone’s alright.”

Alphys blinked. Then she hadn’t realized? “O-oh, w-well, all in a day’s work, right? Eheheh…”

The nurse nodded. “If no one else is staying to provide SOUL support, I can certainly give you that position. You can stay with her while she’s not in surgery--I’d really appreciate it. It’s likely to increase her chance of survival greatly.”

Alphys blinked. “S-so she’s not out of the w-woods yet?”

“Well, with surgeries of this sort, there’s always a risk that the psychological strain will be too great, and she’ll Fall Down.”

“P-psychological strain?” Alphys bit one claw nervously. “W-when I, uh, f-found her, she was manic. Is this, w-will it--”

She flinched as the nurse laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Thanks for telling me this. I think she’ll be alright as long as we keep it in mind. And thank you, Captain, for taking such good care of her.”

Alphys retreated from the conversation and sat to the side, watching. The time flew past her, as hard as she tried to scrutinize every second for dangers. Undyne was whisked out of the room for surgery, and returned unconscious, her ear fin and neck bandaged. She paced and paced and paced, falling into a wary doze in a folding chair at nearly two in the morning. Any noise startled her awake, and when it did she would jump to her feet, claws up, ready to protect Undyne, then skitter sheepishly back to the bed to check on her, breathing quick as she prayed Undyne would wake up soon.

Whether Alphys’ nervous care, the doctors’ treatment, or Undyne’s sheer stubbornness did it, Undyne woke up at nearly ten that morning, staring nervously at Alphys, who was watching her while a doctor changed her bandages. Alphys _had_ been mentally cataloging the parts of the apparatus that was being changed out of its place in Undyne’s ear fin, but in that instant her brain noticed nothing more than the fact that Undyne had awakened. She squeaked in excitement and joy, but could do no more, as she found herself nonverbal.

The doctor finally noticed Undyne watching them from a single, slitted, eye, and smiled down at her as they finished fitting the last of the pins in.

“This is going to have to be in your ear for a year, Doctor. We’ll send you home with two of them, they’re to be sterilized and changed every other day. You have three more spacers in your cervical gills, I’m going to change those out next.” The doctor reached for a different piece of equipment. “These you have to change every twelve hours, at least until you’ve regrown the skin and simple tissues in that area.”

Undyne grimaced as the doctor put the spacers in, and Alphys rubbed her neck sympathetically. The idea of the device was familiar--provide a scaffolding for the delicate new structures to grow onto so that the new gills would be functional--but Alphys had only ever had one once, and that was a tiny metal rod that the new bone of her leg had grown around when she’d broken it. She heard Undyne’s slightly labored breathing and bit her lip, struggling to force out words.

“Is there anything I can do to help her?” Alphys asked, her voice jagged and stilted.

“Make sure that when she goes home, she has someone to help her change those when she needs them changed.”

Undyne groaned, and the doctor shook their head. “You’re not to change them yourself. Unless you don’t want to be able to breathe through those gills?”

She rolled her remaining eye. “Mhm.”

“And take your meds, when you’re supposed to. The _full_ course.”

“I’m not an idiot.” Undyne’s voice was rough, and Alphys could hear the pain lining it, but it was still _Undyne_ , and Alphys was struck with a wave of affection. Undyne had nearly died, gone through reconstructive surgery, and was lying in a hospital bed having metal _things_ put in her gills, but she was still defiant and proud--and utterly stupid, Alphys thought with a smile, realizing that it would be her struggle to make sure Undyne didn’t immediately deviate from the plan thinking she knew best.

“No, but you did leave the hospital rashly to attempt your own course of treatment. If Captain Alphys hadn’t rescued you, that scorched eye of yours would’ve become infected, and your gills would’ve likely collapsed.”

Undyne opened her mouth, shut it, grumbled, and then sighed. “I’m not arguing with your treatment plan, Doctor. I’m arguing with you treating me like a misbehaving teenager.”

Alphys decided this was the time to step in, before Undyne could work up her temper and decide that trashing her chance at recovery was some kind of rebellion against the hospital. “U--Doctor Undyne, please. Let’s not cause a scene.” Alphys gave her her best “I know I’m standing on formality because there’s strangers in the room but I get it and I will be _happy_ to complain about it with you, _later_ , as long as you stop working yourself into a fit _now_ ” look.

Undyne sighed and lay back, eye closed. “Yes, Captain. Sorry, doctor.”

The doctor finished putting the spacers in and sighed. “There’s not much more we can do for you here, and it’ll be healthier for you to be at home, all things considered. As long as you complete the course of treatment correctly, and come back in for regular checkups on your tissue regrowth, you should be alright. Assuming the contamination with the, er, DT, is cleaned up and you avoid reexposure, that is.”

Undyne nodded. Alphys doubted she wanted to stay in the hospital a second more, between her own frustration and her knowledge of how long hospital stays could sap a monster’s strength.

“Captain, thank you for all your help.”

Alphys’ eyes didn’t meet the doctor’s as she nodded sharply.

“I’m going to go draw up the release papers now. Do try not to run away again.”

The barest ghost of a smile touched Undyne’s face as she nodded. The door swung closed, and Undyne put her hands to her head in irritation. “ARGH.”

Alphys moved as close to Undyne as she dared, hoping Undyne wouldn’t read into it. “S-sorry, Undyne. I r-r-really do think you need to l-listen to them about g-getting better.”

“I know, I know, I just--UGH! Run away from the hospital _once_ and everyone’s all ‘you need to stop endangering yourself’ and ‘we’re going to need to make sure that you follow directions’.”

She put a comforting hand on Undyne’s shoulder. “I know. B-but they’re r-really worried about you, t-that’s why.”

“I guess.”

Alphys bit her lip. “ _I’m_ w-worried about you.”

“How many times do I have to say I’m _fine_?!”

“O-only once, b-but it doesn’t count w-when you’re in a h-hospital bed with twenty p-pins in your head.”

Undyne smiled. “Thanks for looking after me, you nerd.”

“Thanks for l-lying for me.”

“What lie, dork? I snuck away, you made me come back. Not their business that you helped me sneak out in the first place, fuhuhu!” Undyne’s troublemaking laugh was infectious, and Alphys found herself laughing too.

“S-still, you didn’t have to t-take all the b-blame--”

“Nah, don’t mention it. C’mon, I’m always the one who gets in trouble for us. They might be mad at me, but at least they’re not screaming at you or calling you a delinquent.”

“I-it’s been a long while since people called me a d-d-delinquent,” Alphys protested.

“Yeah, now they just call you a bitch.” Undyne laughed. “Don’t worry about it, ‘kay? It’s really not a big deal to me.”

Alphys blushed a little bit. If she didn’t _know_ that things were just platonic between her and Undyne, she would’ve accused Undyne of doing this to be romantic. It certainly fit the blustry butch posturing Undyne broke out when she liked someone. But they had been friends since Alphys was barely more than a hatchling, without a hint of anything more so that definitely wasn’t it.

Maybe she was still manic, and couldn’t even conceive of being in trouble about it. That must be why.

“Eheheh… w-well, I d-definitely o-owe you one.” She paused and a thought struck her. “H-how about I s-stay over with you for a while and help you with those s-spacers and meds?”

Undyne opened her mouth to complain, but Alphys could see her thinking about it, and what at last came out was not bitter or scathing but an almost shy “That’d be nice,” followed by her seeming to remember to be gung-ho and saying “A-as long as you don’t mind me beating you at Infinite Dungeon!!! Fuhuhu…”

Alphys laughed too. “Oh, you’re _on._ ”


End file.
